This Iconic Princess Diaries Moment Was Completely Unscripted, According to Anne Hathaway

Some things you just can’t fake. In Anne Hathaway’s case, one of those things is a particularly ungraceful fall she took while filming The Princess Diaries. Luckily, grace wasn’t exactly a character trait for Mia Thermopolis, so the would-be embarrassing moment turned out to be cinematic kismet.

Almost 20 years after the first Princess Diaries movie was released, Hathaway contributed to The Happy Days of Garry Marshall, a special honoring the film’s legendary director, who passed away in 2016. In a bonus clip released by ABC, the actor also revealed that one classic Mia moment was totally unplanned.

“One of the things that I love about Garry is that he was never afraid of the spontaneous moment,” Hathaway said in the clip. “If it was good, it was in the movie. He didn’t care where it came from, he didn’t care what happened.” For example, one “spontaneous moment” happened when Hathaway fell on the bleachers while shooting a scene with Heather Matazarro, who played Lily. Watch the trailer of the 2001 comedy to refresh your memory. Yeah, it was good enough to make the trailer.

“And there was this moment when we were filming,” Hathaway explained. “We were filming in San Francisco. Predictably, it had rained. We were outside, and we had to get the shot really fast because we were losing light. And we had to go on these bleachers and they did their best to wipe them down. And Gary had just said, ‘Okay, there’s a lot of exposition in this scene,’ but he would’ve said, ‘There’s a lot of pipe in this scene so we just have to say it really fast.’”

Marshall told Hathaway that “‘Whenever Heather Matarazzo [is] at the bottom step, I want you to be at the top step of the bleacher. And you just walk back and forth, and we’re gonna get all this information and it’s gonna be cute because you guys are moving.’” The result was something Marshall didn’t request but loved enough to put in the film.

“I guess one take Heather had a lot of energy, so she was moving faster, and I mistimed it, and I realized that we were going to be on the same step so I turn really fast, slipped on a puddle, and just fell,” Hathaway explained. “Absolutely fell and burst out laughing and kept going with the scene. Never thought about it again and all of a sudden, like six months later, it’s in the trailer. He kept it! He kept it because it was a charming moment.”

Honestly, the fall looked like it must have hurt, but it’s so perfect, we couldn’t imagine The Princess Diaries without it. Now, we just need The Princess Diaries 3, please. No painful falls required.